Allen West: Doggone it, nobody else will say this, so I WILL…

Former Congressman Allen West has observed the GOP House leadership and finds it wanting. His junior officers in the Army were taught to plan, not react. Mr. West has been in Congress and knows the inner workings. here are his thoughts on what happened to the repeal and replace fiasco. And then he tells you how this could have been avoided. Read it all here.

As Written By Allen B. West:

How did we get to this place? It’s simple: “we had to pass the bill in order to find out what’s in it” — those famed, or shall we say, fateful words of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She was talking about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, and who will ever forget her repetitive emphasis on the singular word, “affordable” at a House press conference.

Well, after seven years, many came to realize it was not affordable when the insurance premium sticker shock hit last October. And how many times did we hear Barack Obama assure us we’d see $2500 in savings and we could keep your doctor, and your health insurance? That latter statement by Obama was awarded the 2013 Politifact “Lie of the Year.” I could go on ad nauseum with the countless examples of the failure of Obamacare, but we still have folks — chuckleheads — who believe it’s a success.

Now, there’s a part of me wants to say, ok, y’all believe government exists to give you everything? Yep, Obamacare stays. It’s just like with parents who tell the child not to touch the hot stove…but the child still does and realizes it burns.

Perhaps the time has come when the American people need to learn a hard lesson: the stove is hot, and the people who claim to give you something for free are liars. But no, the benevolence of our nature means we keep trying to prevent the child from touching the hot stove, therefore, the child NEVER believes the stove is hot.

This is where we are in America with progressive socialism. Some still don’t believe the stove is hot, and that progressive socialism is a failed premise of governance. And here comes the GOP trying to keep the people away from the stove, the flaming hot stove of Obamacare, a massive tax and welfare endeavor that will burn this nation. But the problem is, the GOP wants to try and keep the stove on, in an attempt to regulate its heat, instead of shutting it off.

And I’m p*ssed.

As reported by Fox News, “White House officials said late Thursday President Trump wants the House to vote Friday on the legislation to begin dismantling Obamacare, and if it fails, he is “done with health care,” and ready to move on to tax reform, a source told Fox News.

“My understanding is he’s going to get it,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said on “The O’Reilly Factor.” “We’re hoping to make this the last anniversary that any American has to suffer under Obamacare by instilling a patient-centric health care system in place, and the president has made that case to members throughout the spectrum of the Republican conference, and tomorrow, it’s time to vote,” he added.

“For seven and a half years we’ve been promising the American people that we will repeal and replace this broken law because it’s collapsing and failing families,” House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters after meeting with Republican leaders. “Tomorrow we’re proceeding.”

Earlier Thursday, Republican leaders canceled a vote after leadership’s attempts to lobby enough votes apparently failed — a major setback for Ryan and Trump. Trump and Republican leaders had spent much of the day scrambling to get both moderates and conservatives on board with the increasingly unpopular legislation. “We have not gotten enough of our members to get to yes at this point under what we have now,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., told reporters.”

If there’s one thing President Trump must comprehend, it’s that this is not a reality TV show, and you don’t just tell people “you’re fired.” If you want to make the deal, it requires an understanding of the three aspects of Capitol Hill — policy, politics, and procedure.

Here’s how I would have proceeded with this if I were House Speaker.

As soon as the election results of November 2016 were known, I would have assembled a GOP majority policy team (task force) for the incoming Congress. There would have been tax, healthcare, foreign policy, and national security/defense teams. I would have shared this concept with the GOP Senate and requested likewise from the Majority Leader in order to have synchronization.

These policy task force teams would represent the respective “factions” of the GOP, being moderate and conservative. As House Speaker, I’d provide them with planning guidance and a timeline for back briefings on policy development. The purpose of this whole endeavor would be to have a way ahead that meets a 75 percent key tasks achievement that becomes the legislative agenda for the first 100 days.

The task forces would have been responsible to brief and present to new members in that first week our plan of action. And as Speaker that would have been it, we then execute. I wouldn’t have cared about retreats, recesses, or time off…we had business to get done and by the end of those first 100 days, reforms to our healthcare system, tax, regulatory apparatus and spending would have been on the president’s desk. And I would simply say to the Democrats, happy to have you on board, or you’ll have tread marks on your backs.

The GOP leadership on Capitol Hill just seems to lack a sense of boldness…principled conviction.

In the case of Obamacare, we would have first gone back and passed the 2015 repeal that Obama vetoed. That would have been ready for President Trump’s signature upon his inauguration. The date for repeal could have been set to coincide with the beginning of the new fiscal year, October 1 2017, or the new calendar year, January 1, 2018. The healthcare reform policy task force’s objective would then be to message exactly what the replacement for Obamacare looks like. We would articulate the way ahead for the working poor, those Americans with pre-existing conditions. We would explain our vision is that we shall not make the mistake of mandating healthcare to Americans. We would make it clear that twenty new taxes have nothing to do with affordable healthcare and how the regulatory environment of Obamacare strangled small business growth and how we would restore our economic viability.

We would present exactly how we’d drive down the costs by qualitative measures such as increased portability, increased competition, national tort reform. The designated healthcare policy team would take….

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